Has discrimination created a profitable business opportunity for Shaq?

Shaquille O'Neal is co-founding an ad agency that promises to be "strive for a talent pool that’s 75% “black, brown, women and LGBTQ." (WSJ, March 2021) Perhaps he is has found a competitive advantage. If discriminatory employment practices by other firms make the wages of black, brown, female, and LGBTQ employees less than the wages of white, cis-gendered, straight males, Shaq's firm would have lower costs than its rivals. His statement that most firms struggle to hit a 25% target makes me wonder if discrimination is reducing wages for the employees he seeks. One way to increase the employment of minority workers is to increase the wages paid to them. I also wonder if clever lawyers are preparing to sue the firm for discrimination against white, cis-gendered, straight males. 

What happens to price when demand increases and supply may decrease?

"The fresh leg in the energy market’s recovery from the coronavirus shock came as a blast of cold weather boosted demand for power and fuel, while threatening to knock oil production in Texas" (WSJ, Feb. 2021).

Why has the price of oil increased?

"Behind oil’s rally: Huge stockpiles that accumulated in the early stages of the pandemic have winnowed down faster than many people expected (WSJ, Feb. 2021).

What happens with the government rations a good

People complete to obtain the good when government determines who receives it first.

1. They lobby to move up the priority list (WSJ, Feb. 2021).
2. They use influence and connections to "cut" in line (WSJ, Feb. 2021).

What happens to price when supply decreases and demand increases?

The price of palm oil has increased (WSJ, Jan. 2021). Also note that earlier farmers responded to lower prices by fertilizing less, thereby reducing the quantity supplied.

A nice review of the literature on the effect of minimum wage

David Neumark and Peter Shirley conclude that: 

"(i) there is a clear preponderance of negative estimates in the literature; 
"(ii) this evidence is stronger for teens and young adults as well as the less-educated;
"(iii) the evidence from studies of directly-affected workers points even more strongly to negative employment effects; and
"(iv) the evidence from studies of low-wage industries is less one-sided" (HT Tyler Cowen, Jan. 2021).

On the proposal to increase the Federal minimum wage to $15

Tyler Cowen thinks that "all economic theories imply that minimum wages should be decided at the state and local level" Here is a money quote.

"These statistics show that $15 is a very high wage floor. For employers to keep all their workers would require raising the wages of a huge share of the national workforce. But the number of workers affected would be so large that this wouldn’t happen. Instead, the number of jobs in the low-wage workforce would shrink.

"The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office confirms this basic intuition, estimating that joblessness would increase by 1.3 million if the national hourly wage floor were hiked to $15 [TC: and that is pre-pandemic]. The CBO also concluded that this policy would reduce business income, raise consumer prices and reduce gross domestic product."